tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5325145031187510736.post7129130877285743600..comments2023-10-15T03:59:53.104-07:00Comments on Empires and Mangers: The Problem of Peeta (The Hunger Games and Philosophy)Anthonyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17422741111661150588noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5325145031187510736.post-56105811122376349512013-11-26T03:38:10.741-08:002013-11-26T03:38:10.741-08:00Language is *undeniably* useful, and the way we us...Language is *undeniably* useful, and the way we use language in everyday life usually works. However, there are exceptional situations where everyday language doesn't work very well. We humans are so good at resolving ambiguities in language that we don't even notice them. This is something that I run into all the time as a programmer: what appears to be a precise specification turns out to have significant ambiguities when you try to explain it to a computer which takes everything literally. This is the reason that programming languages look so arcane and verbose - every little thing must be made explicit.<br /><br />I think the best way to talk about the concept of identity is to be very careful about building up a well-defined foundation of explicit concepts and definitions before trying to draw large conclusions about the world outside of language. The problem with "identity" is that while it appears to describe an objective quality of a thing in the world, it is actually a purely subjective demarcation of an object of perception. Identity, as a concept, is pretty clearly a deep function of our minds, not easy to describe or articulate, and we are likely to run into problems when we try unreflectively to use that concept in contexts for which it was not adapted.Steve Rublehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10354805604015803912noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5325145031187510736.post-86311033986684139152013-11-17T15:31:30.745-08:002013-11-17T15:31:30.745-08:00It sounds like your saying that the trouble lies i...It sounds like your saying that the trouble lies in the shortcomings of language as it attempts to explain or identify things (the problem of reference). Language may well fail us every time we use it, and yet I think we would agree that what it does offer enables us to navigate our way pretty successfully through life. Assuming that's true, what do you think is the best way to talk about identity?Anthonyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17422741111661150588noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5325145031187510736.post-34845914057318145922013-11-15T04:38:13.427-08:002013-11-15T04:38:13.427-08:00Hi Anthony,
Are you familiar with the "probl...Hi Anthony,<br /><br />Are you familiar with the "problem of reference"? There's a nice overview here: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/reference/. I tend to see questions like the one's you raise in this post as boiling down to reference problems; it's easy to say, "That is Peeta," but when you start introducing unusual complications it becomes apparent that our everyday heuristics for resolving references are not robust enough to handle the possible nuances. <br /><br />My point is that apparent problems with explaining persistence of identity may point not to the existence of some transcendent identity-substance, but rather to the fact that our thinking about what comprises an identity may have been imprecise in the first place. In fact, our intuitions about what comprises an identity may not be formalizable - it may not be possible to devise a concise and consistent definition of "identity" which comports with our intuitions about identity in every conceivable situation, or in every conceivable dimension. For example, what if five exact copies of Peeta are created using a broken Star Trek transporter, but one is switched with a Peeta in a parellel universe who has greener eyes, one is in a persistent vegetative state, one has all the positive traits Peeta ever wished he could have, one is aging backwards, and God moved the original Peeta's soul into the another copy, and the last copy is exactly like the original in every respect. Which is the real Peeta now? I think it's fair to say that our intuitive concepts of identity are not able to easily cope with this situation, but that doesn't really let us draw many conclusions about "identity" as a general concept.Steve Rublehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10354805604015803912noreply@blogger.com